Her mother prostituted her at the age of six. By age 11, she was addicted to heroin and pregnant. But when local health officials saw her condition, they didn’t ask any questions about the circumstances of her pregnancy.

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery whose victims include young women coming to the U.S. in search of a new life, children who grew up here but fall into a life of desperation and migrant workers robbed of the means to ensure their independence, a top Justice Department official said Wednesday.

Human trafficking has been described by the Justice Department as “a big moneymaker for criminals and a scourge to society” and a group that seeks to help those caught in its grips says the number of callers to its national hotline identifying themselves as victims is increasing — and that’s good.

A report by Northeastern researchers released on Monday outlines ways local, state and federal law enforcement can improve the identification, investigation and prosecution of human trafficking. istockphoto.

To over­come the hur­dles to iden­ti­fying and pros­e­cuting human-​​trafficking cases, police and pros­e­cu­tors must sig­nif­i­cantly bol­ster edu­ca­tion and training and develop coor­di­nated, proac­tive inves­ti­ga­tion strate­gies, according to a new report pre­pared by North­eastern researchers in con­junc­tion with the Washington-​​based Urban Institute.

The U.S. Justice Department once again failed to fulfill its mandate to prosecute criminal activity to the fullest extent of the law, a public-interest group dedicated to weeding out government corruption, fraud and waste noted on Friday.